Staffan Malmgrens blogg

Bara en kort notis om att emusic sedan jag sist bloggade om dem både startat en blogg och tagit in Relapse i sortimentet. Bra skit.

Last time i saw Nicke Andersson behind the drums, he was playing with death’n rollers Entombed. Tonight, I saw him behind the drums with his soul project The Solution, which of course was nothing like Entombed (the years with Hellacopters seem to have changed him a bit). Anyway, they did rock. If you’re planning to go to Hultsfred and/or Roskilde, don’t miss them.

Every metalhead’s favourite news service, Blabbermouth.net, now has a RSS feed. Subscribed!, as they say.

[Aarrgh, I just lost the entire review because dasBlog suddenly decided that I wasn’t logged in, and when I went back, the nice and friendly HTML-editor-form didn’t keep my text… And now I can’t reproduce it]

I had to find out what all the fuss about this band was about. On the surface, there’s nothing that special about DOLL. It’s rock. It’s nicely produced. They build really convincing moods with small means. A good case of “less is more”. While the uptempo tracks are instantly recognizable and easy to get into, it’s the slower numbers like “Breathe breathe” and “There’s a last time for everything”, with their slower, moodier sounds (making good use of keyboards), that win me over. Some songs are so intense that I can’t stand to listen to them when I’m around people. Not many bands have that effect on me, and while it’s a little frightening, I can’t recommend this record highly enough.

I have discovered undeniable evidence that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez in The Mars Volta is really the little brother of Slash in Guns’n Roses. See for yourself:

This might just be this year’s most interesting compilation:

On the bonus-CD you will find such cool projects as: C.Aarmé with the help of At The Gates and Entombed members on a new C.Aarmé track, Nine with vocalist(s) from Haunted doing “United Forces” by S.O.D., Division Of Laura Lee and Ebbot from Soundtrack Of Our Lives punking up Minor Threat, Millencolin doing an Asta Kask cover with Miezko from Nasum on guest-vocals, and Turbonegro featuring Brody Dalle from The Distillers on vocals covering Agent Orange.

Not out until August, though.

A couple of days ago Dagensskiva.com published a review of Tyla’s (of Dogs D’Amour) and Dregen’s (of Backyard babies) acoustic live album, The Poet & the Dragon, “Live… somewhere in this world” (I would post a link to the record label’s information page about this record, but I cannot find it). Good review, and I became immediately interested in the record. However, as Dagensskiva.com is a somewhat reputable publication, they get sent advance copies of upcoming albums, and review them before they’re available. This particular record won’t be available for over another week. If the review had been published the same day as it was available for regular mortals (something that the record label could easily arrange), I would have been much more likely to go out during my lunch break and buy it. Now it’s probably easier to ask around if anyone I know have any mp3’s of the advance release.

Grand Royal LLC record label for auction. Various master recordings, license agreements, recording agreements and misc. contracts available.

The bid is currently at $15K. It doesn’t seem to include the masters for “Check your head”, though.

CANINUS is from New York City, the band is fronted by 2 pit bulls, they do all the vocals, 100% real, no joke or studio tricks. Their growls are all you hear. The band is made up of 3 dudes and 1 chick, Buddy on the bass, Thunder on the drums, Sudz and Belle on guitars.

With the pseduo-journalistic M.O. of running a blog comes a free license to write “best of the year”-lists. I might be a few days late, but what the hell. Also, it seems from looking at the server logs that band names are one of the most common ways people end up here from search engines.

The main focus of the list seem to be albums that helped me get through the autumn. Therefore, a little more Emo than what I would usually pick. If I’m really bored some other night, I might link up all bands, albums and song titles so you can go clicky like mad.

1. Lost Patrol - Songs about running away
   I read an article about Dennis Lyxéns new solo album and it’s focus on a relationship breakup, which sounded strange (as I’ve always associated Dennis with strongly political lyrics in all his bands) but interesting. I downloadeded “Going going gone” from burningheart.com, the next thing I knew I had listened to it on repeat for an entire afternoon. I bought the album the same day. The Lost Patrol also performed what might be last year’s best concert at Debaser in the late summer (but also see Entombed).
2. Dashboard Confessional - A mark, a mission, a brand, a scar
   In particular “Hands Down” which might just be the best song about kissing a girl for the first time ever, even surpassing Jawbreaker’s “East Bay Invitational”. The other songs pale a bit in comparison, but are still very good.
3. Moneybrother - Blood Panic
   Another album with a epic song that stand out amongs a bunch of what would otherwise have been considered brilliant songs — “It’s been hurting all the way with you Joanna”. My largest regret this year concert-wise is that I missed all chances to see them live (which in a way is a wierd accomplishment as they’ve seem to played just about everywhere)
4. Nasum - Helvete
   I saw these guys at The Shrine early this year, when they gave a incredbly intense gig with a very well-defined sound. The album was likewise intense, to the point that I couldn’t take it all in at once. I had to listen to a few songs on repeat at a time, until I was familiar with the entire album.
5. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the comatorium
   This years big hype in hard rock circles, and not unjustified. This album also took some time to digest, but Televators might be one of the finest, most elaborately disguised ballads this year. The way it was played at the Stockholm gig this autumn (at first only with electic piano and vocals) is even better than the album version.
6. Entombed - Inferno
   I didn’t think much of this when I first got it — another solid death’n roll album, but nothing spectacular — but after the Debaser gig this september, which may have been the best gig this year, in fierce competition with The Lost Patrol, I realized what gems were actually hidden on this album
7. MBMA - Nu ännu drygare
   This is just an EP, but amazingly varied. The title track is a football-crowd-singalong-hiphop-anthem of previously unheard proportions (as well as a nice 12-bar-blues-ish chord progression), “Förr eller senare” is a wonderful narratory song with first-class guest, and “Småsaker” is a surprisingly sensitive song.
8. Jose González - Veener
   I got in way too late on this hype, but this is an amazing demonstration of how strongly emotions can be conveyed with an acoustic guitar and a voice.
9. Sick of it all - Life on the ropes
   The first SOIA album produced by themselves, and it feels amazingly vital, fast, agressive and with just the right amount of melody. And the anthemic (is that a word?) “For Now” is wonderful.
10. Turbonegro - Scandinavian Leather
    I was a little disappointed in this, but then I had very high expectations. It does not have the energy of “Ass Cobra” and “Apocalypse Dudes”, but “Fuck the World” and “Ride with us” are still very good songs.
11. Calm - Are we supposed to be…
    I went to Club Nirvana with some friends, not expecting anything in particular, as this band started moshing all over the stage as well as the audience floor, scaring all of the audience up against the wall. After the first two songs I hated it, after the following two I loved it.
12. MC Solaar - Mach 6
    As a whole, this album is not that excellent, but “Guerilla” and in particular “La Vie Est Belle” are incredibly good. The latter also have the perfect tempo and dynamic structure for running, it’s going to help me during this year’s marathon.
13. Danko Jones - We Sweat Blood
    If this had been a live album, it would likely place higher. The album is good, but pales in comparison to the live show I saw this autumn.
14. Poison The Well - You Come Before You
    I liked “Distance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder”, and had high hopes for this Swede-produced major label debut. However, most of the songs did not stick, with the exception for “Ghostchant”
15. Fireside - Get Shot
    Another album that I had high expectations for, and the single “Throw it away” as well as the album starter “All you had” promised much, but I haven’t found myself coming back to this album often.
16. Funeral for a Friend - Casually Dressed & Deep in conversation
    I saw the video for “Juneau” by accident, found it an interesting screamo song, and downloaded some songs. The emo parts are very good, but I don’t care much for the heavy metal-ish guitar licks. Still, a good album, now if they could just play a little less on the next one…
17. Hatebreed - The Rise Of Brutality
    As this is essentially “Persevearence” part 2, and that album was one of the best of last year, maybe this should place higher, but then again, I already have that album when I’m in the mood for brutal metalcore.
18. Östermalm - Aldrig Mer Teater
    Again, an album with a really strong starter song (”En Lyckad Kväll På Indian Star”), that makes me remember the best parts of KSMB, but the rest of the songs don’t reach the same heights.
19. Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
    Clearly this year’s best epic symponic black metal album. I haven’t been much in the mood for that this year, though.
20. Lisa Miskovsky - Fallingwater
    I loved what Lisa Miskovsky did on the Lost Patrol album. If she had had Dennis Lyxén as partner for this album instead of that Kent dude, this might have placed much higher.